Zygi Kamasa, the chief executive, admitted he can hum the theme tune on demand. “I was a big fan,” he said. “We all grew up with it in the 70s so the idea of bringing it back for the big screen is perfect. There aren’t many British TV shows from 30 years ago that you think could work today, but this is one of them.”

The film will be set in the present day but effectively be a prequel, telling the story of how Bodie and Doyle are brought together by CI5 boss Cowley. Bodie will have served as an SAS soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan before being put in a domestic environment with Scotland Yard counter-terrorism detective Doyle.

“They’re slightly renegade this bunch, they want to go out and get the job done,” said Kamasa. “From an entertainment point of view, they want to stop the bad guys but they are operating with rules and they don’t follow rules. It’s not PC to say but that’s what’s fun about it.”